Luke Escombe‘s latest album Creeper Vine is a vintage-sounding homage to artists like Chuck Berry, Freddie King, and Elvis Presley while traversing the themes of modern-day life. This splice of eras is fresh and unique, emphasizing the singer-songwriter’s innate sense of fun. Touring Australia during March and April, Escombe is ready to rock n roll.
You draw inspiration from “vintage” sounds – do you remember the first album you ever bought? What are your memories of listening to that record?
My dad worked in the music industry in one way or another his whole life, so there was always music in our house growing up. I went to a lot of amazing shows. The first record I remember ever buying with my own pocket money was Led Zep IV, because I had a guitar teacher who wanted to teach me “Stairway to Heaven”. I was about 14. I listened to it constantly. My favourite tracks were “The Battle of Evermore” and “When the Levee Breaks”. Initially I was attracted by the guitar riffs but then what really started to catch my ear were the drums. The drum sound on “When the Levee Breaks” is still without equal
Who were some of the artists you grew up listening to?
As a young kid I loved the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen. I knew all the words to the “Born in the USA” album and used to do acapella performances of the songs in school. I was lucky enough to see Bruce live several times, along with other incredible performers like Prince and Freddie Mercury. Paul Simon’s Graceland album came out just as we were going to South Africa to see my Dad’s relatives so we listened to that constantly, I still adore it. I started playing electric guitar at the age of 13 and was obsessed with Hendrix, Led Zep, Clapton and Pink Floyd. Later on I became a disciple of Stevie Ray Vaughan and, as I got a bit older, started to go back further into the blues artists who inspired those players – John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins. Frank Zappa fits in there somewhere too, I started listening to him around the age of 15.
How have your tastes changed? Do you still listen to the same?
My tastes became a lot more diverse in my late teens and early 20s. I moved away from rock completely for a while and was listening to funk, soul, hip-hop and jazz. My first Sydney band was inspired by Parliament-Funkadelic, Miles Davis, The Headhunters and James Brown. I loved Frank Zappa’s jazz fusion albums like Hot Rats – I loved the combination of radical politics and jazz in Gil Scott-Heron, the musicianship and exoticism of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Then everything changed for me when I saw Martin Scorcese’s doco on Bob Dylan. I’d never been much of a Dylan fan before but that doco converted me. I got rid of the 10-piece funk-jazz-fusion band and reinvented myself as a solo singer-songwriter. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot more music from the 1950’s – R and B, doo wop groups, blues, jazz, early rock and roll – I love the sound and energy of those records, they still sound fresh, vital and sexy
How has the music you’ve grown up with been interpreted by the Luke Escombe sound?
There are a couple of different components to the Luke Escombe sound. There’s the blues and Hendrix influence evident in my guitar playing. There’s my love of funky, soulful grooves. There’s the fact that I’ve got a deep, baritone voice and then there’s the fact that my brain is full of snakes. I have a great love of authentic roots music but at the same time I have these wild, subversive impulses that find their best expression in comedy, hip-hop and spoken word tangents.
What was it like working at Vienna People Studios?
I’ve been working there since 2011. It’s a beautiful little studio run by a friend of mine, Michael McGlynn. Mike’s an incredible musician and has a wonderful appreciation of songwriting and storytelling. He has put his entire heart and soul into that studio and it’s a joy to come to work there.
How long was the recording process for this album?
It was pretty quick. I did two mornings of tracking with Jamie Cameron (drums) where I played and sang live in the control room while he laid down the drums. Then we had two afternoons with Harry Brus where he laid down the bass, followed by a couple more sessions for Aaron Flower’s guitar and Carmen Smith’s backing vocals. Mike and I did the rest over a couple of evenings – some extra guitar, percussion, vocals, organ and piano.
How did the process compare to your past works?
I learnt a lot from making my previous two studio albums – Golden Ages and Mantown – and came in with some principles already established. The two most vital things I learnt were: if you don’t capture groove and energy in the initial performance then no amount of clever mixing will save the track, and if you’re listening to a song and something isn’t working then the first place you should look is at the structure of the song itself – the melody, lyrics and narrative flow. Working on that basis meant we were able to get where we needed a lot quicker. This is also the first time I’ve worked with a producer, so it was a more collaborative process. We made a decision right at the beginning to use a lot of room mics on the drums and amps and not to use any click tracks. It was an incredibly fun record to make.
Tell us a little bit about the people you recorded with for your new record. How did they all come to work with you and what was it like working with them?
Jamie and Baz (drums and guitar) are guys I’ve been working with on a regular basis since 2008 so I know them well. Jamie is a phenomenally talented drummer who can learn new songs in no time at all and give you 3 or 4 perfect takes immediately, each one with a completely different approach. Baz (Aaron Flower) is an award-winning jazz guitarist but loves playing blues, soul and rock and roll. He has great chops but he also has a sense of narrative, even a kind of poetry, in his playing. Harry Brus is a straight up Australian music legend who has played bass with just about everybody – Renee Geyer, Billie Thorpe and the Aztecs – check out his Wikipedia page for the list, it’s impressive. He is a disciple of Motown bassist James Jamerson, and plays the bass in the same style – using one finger to hook and then flick the notes. He uses heavy strings on heavy basses and gets a deep, authoritative, classic sound. His grooves are soulful, inventive and visceral and it was just a joy to watch him at work. Finally there was Michael McGlynn who is a great listener and added just the right sound and feel in his piano and organ overdubs. He is an absolute mofo on the tambourine.
What can we expect from a Luke Escombe and the Corporation show (particularly looking at these upcoming tour dates)?
We’ve got a colourful, raucous, energetic set that’s going to take you on a musical thrill ride from blues to funk to outlandish comedy hip-hop and dirty rock. The narrative of the show will cover topics like art, terrorism, love, war, sex, drugs, religion and the end of the world. There will be sweat, filth, poetry, insight and plenty of rocking out, dancing, laughing and wicked grins.
Do you have a favourite place to perform?
It’s the crowd that makes a show special rather than the venue, so my favourite places are those that do as much as possible to help the crowd and band connect. One great way to do this is not to combine the idea of a music venue with a business model that relies on people buying drinks. A couple of places I keep going back to are the Music Lounge in Brookvale (which is about three minutes up the road from where I live in Sydney) and a place called the Wharf at Wagstaffe on the Central Coast, where we recorded our recent live album “Live on the Coast”. The downside to less traditional venues like these is that they’re not considered to be “profile” and so you don’t get as much press attention for playing them. I wish there were more of them all over the country
Anywhere you’re playing this tour you haven’t before?
This is the first time I’ve taken the band with me to Melbourne. In the past I’ve just gone down there for solo gigs and musical comedy shows. We’ve never played in Newcastle before either.
You recently did a kids show as part of the Sydney Fringe – do your experiences doing something like that rub off on the performances you do on the rest of your career?
That was a wonderful experience. Playing late night shows in bars where people were falling over drunk and glassing each other lost some of its romance after I became a Dad and so creating The Vegetable Plot was a way for me to find the joy and innocence in my songwriting again. I think of this new record – “Creeper Vine” – as providing the balance, so where the kid’s show was an expression of my love of mankind and my hope for the future, this is the expression of my frustration and outrage at the absurdity of human behavior. Music is both a powerful medium for communicating joy and a safe way to release those dark, angry impulses that live inside our hearts. I feel very blessed that I can switch between the two, that way I can give each side of me its due.
If you could collaborate with one artist who would it be and why?
I love working with people from different mediums so it would probably be a film maker, someone like Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino or Spike Jonze
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2015 TOUR DATES
QLD, 14th March, The Milk Factory, South Brisbane
NSW, 15th March, The Shaws Bay Hotel, East Ballina,
VIC, 21st March, The Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy
NSW, 28th March, The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
NSW, 4th April, Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville
